MHM 86 – November 2017

The November issue of Military History Monthly, the British military history magazine, is now on sale.

In this issue:

Red Revolution: how did the Bolsheviks win the Russian Civil War?

The centenary of the Russian Revolution has been heavily publicised, but the events of the ensuing Civil War are only dimly remembered. In an extended special feature, MHM Editor Neil Faulkner examines the phases of this devastating conflict. He recounts the strategy and tactics of a largely peasant army fighting Tsarist forces propped up by an alliance of international powers. How did the Bolsheviks win, against all odds?

The feature includes:

Battle Maps

Photographs

Battle Analysis

Strategy

Tactics

The Grand Old Duke of York
Did he really go up the hill and down again? Derek Winterbottom takes a serious look at the life of the man behind the nursery rhyme.

Submarine attack
Arnold Harvey researches the story of those who jumped ship after a U-boat attack – and managed to survive.

Regiment
The 9th (Queen’s Royal) Lancers at Elouges, 1914. Patrick Mercer recounts a rare British cavalry action on the Western Front.

Flying Aces: pigeons at Passchendaele
Pigeons were crucial to communications at Passchendaele. Gervase Phillips reports on the role of the ‘pigeon post’ during the First World War.

Also in this issue:

Wellington: Portraits of a Gentleman
Did Wellington enjoy having his portrait taken? George Clode finds out, in a survey of a selection of famous portraits of the Duke.

Russian Revolution on Film
TV and film critic Taylor Downing reviews October (1928), Dr Zhivago (1965), Nicholas and Alexandra (1971), and Reds (1981).

War Culture; Women at War; War on Film; Book of the Month; Book Reviews; Museum Review; Event Listings; Competitions; and much more.

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From the editor

MHM Editor Dr Neil Faulkner

This issue we mark the centenary of the Russian Revolution. We think of 1917 as the key turning-point, but the reality was far messier.

Russia was plunged into a four-year Civil War that killed almost 15 million people and reduced the country to ground zero. This was the context for the emergence of a monstrous Stalinist dictatorship.

The Russian Civil War is little known. It is overshadowed in historical memory by the end of the
First World War and then a sequence of tumultuous events across Europe over the subsequent five years.

Our special this time brings the Russian Civil War into focus. We tell the story, analyse the strategy and tactics, and reflect on its huge historical significance.

Also this issue, we have Arnold Harvey’s discussion of the grim experience of shipwrecked mariners in the Second World War, Derek Winterbottom’s revelation of the true identity of ‘the Grand Old Duke of York’, Patrick Mercer on the 9th Lancers at Mons in his Regiment series, and Gervase Phillips on ‘the Pigeons of Passchendaele’ in Sideshow.

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The amalgamation of the 9th & 12th Lancers did not take place in 1969 as stated. The text of a plaque from Tidworth Garrison church below.

"Here on the 11 September 1960, 9th/12th Royal Lancers (Prince of Wales's) was formed by the 9th Queen’s Royal Lancers and the 12th Royal Lancers (Prince of Wales's) coming together before God. It is not the beginning but the continuing of the same until it be thoroughly finished, which yieldeth the true glory."

I was with 45Cdo over the road from them in Little Aden in '62/63' Bob Harriman